Saturday, December 26, 2009

T'was the night before ChristmasAnd all through the shackNot a heater was glowingIn all of the rack.

Sitting totally silent and quiet that nightThe old HRO shed nary a light.The Johnson exciter and its homebrew finalFelt cold as leftovers, or seat-cover vinyl,

I drowsed at my workbench feeling tired and weary,The print in the Handbook looked fuzzy and smeary.I thought, "I'll make coffee", and groaned to my feetWhen I heard a loud clatter outside in the street.

What the--? I wondered and turned on the lightsAnd there I beheld a wondrous sight:A battered old van heaped high with componentsAnd a grizzled old ham with a bagful of doughnuts.

I noted his callsign-- can't recall it today--But a patch on the side read "FMLA".I opened the door and hollered "Come in!The coffee pot's heating, and we'll sit down and chin!"

He spoke not a word but whistled in MorseA "GE OM", and "By golly, I'm hoarse.Too many contacts, and hot rosin smoke."I nodded and poured him a mug of jamoke.

He emptied the doughnuts in a pile on a plateAnd explained in a whistle, "I'm running real late.I've new 6L6s and fine 211s, 6146s and good 'SN7s.And 866s and 0B2s, type 45s and mil-spec 807s."

"For the regennie crowd, 201s by the scoreAnd good ol' type 30s and 19s galore.I haven't neglected the passive-parts runThere's lots of good iron by old Thordarson."

I nodded and smiled, suppressing a chortleAs he reached in his pack and left me a 304TL.He whistled, "I'm leaving, the coffee was great,But I'm overdue in the neighboring state."

"Keep everyone building the rigs of their choosingOr we'll lose the bands that we're lazy in using.Transistors or tubes-- any project is fine--Just keep on constructing and sharing on line."

He leaped to his feet and waved a gloved handAs he sprang for the door and his rusty old van.I heard him exclaim as he drove away from me,"Merry Christmas, you Glowbugs, and to all 73!"

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(With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, who surely would havebeen a ham had radio existed in his time. Alas, all he hadto build with was words.)

For new readers: the FMLA (Five Meter Liberation Army) appeared in aseries of short stories written by Michael N. Hopkins, AB5L (sk). If you have neverread these, you're in for a fun evening!

For QRP fans: the numerical references in the poem are for classicvacuum tubes, several of which operate at QRP levels (whether or not that was theoriginal builder's intention) and (mostly) within the amateur bands.

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